wen woods like haire: his right
arme should stretch out to such a hollow bottome as might be like his
hand: holding a dish conteyning al the waters that should serue that
Citie: the left arme with his hand should hold a valley of all the
orchards and gardens of pleasure pertaining thereunto: and either legge
should lie vpon a ridge of rocke, very gallantly to behold, and so should
accomplish the full figure of a man. The king asked him what commoditie of
soyle, or sea, or nauigable riuer lay neere vunto it, to be able to
sustaine so great a number of inhabitants. Truly Sire (quoth _Dinocrates_)
I haue not yet considered thereof: for in trueth it is the barest part of
all the Countrey of Macedonia. The king smiled at it, and said very
honourably, we like your deuice well, and mean to vse your seruice in the
building of a Citie, but we wil chuse out a more commodious scituation:
and made him attend in that voyage in which he conquered Asia and Egypt,
and there made him chiefe Surueyour of his new Cite of Alexandria. Thus
did _Dinocrates_ singularitie in attire greatly further him to his
aduancement.

Yet are generally all rare things and such as breede maruell & admiration
somewhat holding of the vndecent, as when a man is bigger & exceeding the
ordinary stature of a man like a Giaunt, or farre vnder the reasonable and
common size of men as a dwarfe, and such vndecencies do not angre vs, but
either we pittie them or scorne at them.

But at all insolent and vnwoonted partes of a mans behauiour, we find many
times cause to mislike or to be mistrustfull, which proceedeth of some
vndecency that is in it, as when a man that hath alwaies bene strange and
vnacquainted with vs, will suddenly become our familiar and domestick: and
another that hath bene alwaies sterne and churlish, wilbe vpon the
suddaine affable and curteous, it is neyther a comely sight, nor a signe
of any good towards vs. Which the subtill Italian well obserued by the
successes thereof, saying in Prouerbe.
_Chi me fa meglio chenon fuole,
Tradito me ha o tradir me vuolo.

He that speakes me fairer, than his woont was too
Hath done me harme, or meanes for to doo._

Now againe all maner of conceites that stirre vp any vehement passion in a
man, doo it by some turpitude or euill and vndecency that is in them, as
to make a man angry there must be some iniury or contempt offered, to make
him enuy there must proceede some vndeserued prosperitie of his egal